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Vogel's Got Milk

Hot on the heels of director Francois Vogel's visual masterpiece for HP's Digital Imaging division comes a fresh new challenge: milk. Lowe/N.Y. recruited the director from Paranoid Projects: Tool, Santa Monica, to direct a new commercial as part of the agency's "Got Milk?" campaign.

Shot over three days, "Skinny Glass" features a glass of skinny milk placed between the camera lens and different daily activities performed by various actors. As the action unfolds the camera sweeps around the glass of milk in a 360-degree fashion, keeping the glass centered in frame as audiences observe the exploits through, and the reflections upon, the ubiquitous vessel. "Mixing two different perspectives together will be very interesting," says Vogel. "Everything begins in the same perspective, but when we spin around the glass everything changes. I'm looking forward to seeing this interaction take place."

Lowe sought a director who could realistically capture this effect yet keep it real. Greg Crossley, director of brand development, explains, "We knew from our research that a skinny glass represented losing weight to audiences. However, with complicated special effects we didn't want to lose that humanity. We definitely sought a visual director to make this concept work, but one who would also inject the human factor-someone who'd step up to the plate and hit a grand slam rather than grounding out with a client this big."

After a number of movements were captured on the first two days, the focus shifted to filming 3-D reflections on the surface of the glass for post effects. A camera shot footage of on-set reflections in a large chrome orb, rotating around the sphere shooting at 120 fps. PAs sprinted around with lights to keep the effect real as DP Pascal Lebegue lensed the action. "It's all like something from NASA," quips GCD Bernie Hogya between takes.

Editing will be handled by Lin Polito at Jump, New York, while special effects belong to The Mill, New York. Vogel will be on hand to oversee duties throughout the post process. Breaking later this month, the spot is tagged to tout milk's alleged ability to burn fat, positing that 24 ounces of low-fat moo juice a day burns more fat that dieting alone.